1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image pickup devices and, more particularly, to an image pickup device having a hermetic packaging for hermetically enclosing an image pickup unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most conventional image pickup devices each have an image pickup unit with one solid-state image pickup element such as a CCD (charge-coupled device), namely, a single-CCD image pickup unit. This type of image pickup device has a simple structure and is inexpensive.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2000-333903 and 2001-53989 disclose image pickup devices of the above-mentioned conventional type. Each image pickup device, that is detachable, is connected to an eyepiece of an endoscope. The image pickup device captures a subject image supplied from the endoscope.
As disclosed in the above patent documents, the image pickup device is designed such that the single-CCD image pickup unit is enclosed in a hermetic packaging, which is hermetically sealed in order to protect components of the optical system and the like from exposure to vapor.
The single-CCD image pickup unit can longitudinally receive an optical image of a subject directly from the optical system. The single-CCD image pickup unit has a nearly cylindrical shape. Accordingly, in the conventional image pickup device, the hermetic packaging can be shaped into a substantially cylinder. Therefore, the above-mentioned conventional image pickup device can be reduced in size such that a wasted space is not created between the image pickup device and the image pickup unit.